Wednesday, February 23, 2011

If you're a Windows 7 user (poor you) then you might (might not) be aware that the original version of Windows 7 (the one you're using right now!) is the 'draft' version. Microsoft never really finish a version of Windows - they put out a half-completed issue, wait for bugs and holes to be reported from angry users - and then start trying to patch it up.

Usually they are unable to patch all the problems before a new version is issued (Windows 8, 2012rumoured) - so then they don't need to bother with the old version - the new one is so buggy that they have their hands full.

Well now, Windows 7 users can at least fix some of the bugs security holes by downloading Service Pack 1 (SP1) which patches at least some of the problems. This contains a total of 795 patches. Direct download link is here.

But ask yourself this - do you really want to trust an operating system which is this insecure? this flaky?

The Wifi Cloud is pretty much all around us but I've found that many 'open' and free spots require purchase of a very over-priced and poor quality coffee (yeah, you, Starbucks) clogging your arteries (McDonalds) or buying alcohol (Wetherspoons).

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A schoolgirl who drinks more than 10 times the recommended amount for a woman every week insists she isn't an alcoholic. Nicola Weaver, 15, regularly downs ten pints of cider and four cans of lager on a Saturday night and has even ended up in hospital.

But the teenager refuses to mend her ways despite seeing a counsellor and having her mobile and Sky TV box confiscated. "My behaviour is normal for my age," she says. "Drinking's fun and I don't plan to stop. I'd be bored if I didn't drink."

Two months ago, Nicola was hospitalised after she drank around 45 units in one night.

Mind you, she does live in Bridlington. If I lived there I'd probably be tempted.

Monday, February 21, 2011

As an F1 fan I've always hated the way that FIA, and Bernie Ecclestone, have chased the new cash around the world by switching GP's from F1's heartland of Europe to places that so few people know about - or care about: Malaysia. China. Korea. Bahrain. Abu Dhabi. Morocco. Not exactly 'core audiences' for F1.

Ecclestone, pictured (who's daughter Tamara presented Sky Sports coverage of the Formula 1 season, nothing to do with Daddy, of course) did not comment on the issue other than the official FIA statement.

However, Williams F1 chairman, Adam Parr, expressed his relief that a decision had been madeby saying "It is clear that to race in Bahrain at this time would be inappropriate
given the current circumstances."

Current circumstances ... ?

So I assume then, that past circumstances - the oppresion, lack of democracy, and autocratic rule in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi - are clearly not a problem, only when it finds itself on international TV.

If F1 really wanted to be a global sport - as it claims - then it's GP's would be more evenly spreadworldwide, not just concentrated in Europe (old money) the Far East (new money) and the Gulf (oil money).

"A lot of my friends on twitter have been discussing abortion from a feminist pro-choice point of view. Many of my friends on Facebook have mentioned abortion from a Catholic pro-life point of view and requested that I go and sign petitions or join groups against it. I’ve decided to try and work out what I think, and probably upset all the Christians AND the feminists in one go."

Labour MP Chuka Umunna, of the Treasury Select Committee, who requested the detail, described it as "shocking", and went on to say that the revelation showed that the bank was not paying its fair
share towards a deficit they had helped create, despite having benefited
from the government's rescue of the financial system.

Barclays claimed that "any link between Barclays Group profits and the amount of tax paid to
the UK government is inappropriate - there is no direct correlation
between the two."

Funny, I thought there always was a link between how much you earn and how much tax you pay.

Barclays chief Bob Diamond keeping silent about his bonus.

Barclays reasoning? - "the amount of corporation tax [we] paid for the year (2009) included losses for the previous year (2008)."

The only way we can test the trueness of this statement is to see what tax they pay from the 2010 year, when Barclays made pre-tax profits of £6.1bn. This time no excuses for 'losses' - or will they find another excuse?

Barclays, of course, paid out £3.4 in bonuses for the 2010 year, including a rumoured £9m to chief Bob Diamond (pictured).

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Folks at informationisbeautiful.net (mainly David McCandless) have spent a while electronically 'scraping' various online horoscopes have come up with the ultimate horoscope prediction which applies to every one, every day, from a selection of 4000 entries. Ready for this?

Whatever the situation or secret moment, enjoy everything a lot. Feel able to care. Expect nothing else. Keep making love. Family and friends matter. The world is life, fun and energy. Maybe hard. Or easy. Taking exactly enough is best. Help and talk to others. Change your mind and a better mood comes along.

See, that's all you need. Now stop reading horoscopes and take charge of your own life.

Absolutely brilliant animation based on the old classic computer game Tetris (you remember Tetris, surely?) showing the comparative sizes of all those numbers thrown at us in the news, to put them all into perspective. From David McCandless, via informationisbeautiful.net.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Brit awards suffered its lowest ratings for five years after an average of only 4.8m tuned in to watch the ceremony. ITV1's coverage was beaten by the final episode of the awful Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, seen by an average of 6.5m on Channel 4. On BBC One, even Holby City drew an average audience of 5.6m. Last year's Brits drew an average of 5.8m viewers.

Well, that's what happens when you choose brainless, unfunny rent-a-mouth James Corden to host. His co-written 'Gavin & Stacey' was reasonable, but he's done absolutely nothing worthwhile since except trade on his name and fame to host various shows, all of which have flopped.

He's rented himself out to Red Nose Day, Comic Relief, Big Fat Quiz, Buzzcocks, Big Brither or 8 Out Of 10 Cats - Corden seems to be there whatever. And the less said about the appalling, embarassing James Corden's World Cup Live the better.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Huge fun in Exeter over the weekend as the racist EDL held a 'Ban The Burka' demonstration. Reports of total turnout for the EDL range from as low as 8 to the giddy heights of 15. When you're outnumbered by photographers you know your cause is lacking support.

In contrast, several hundred Anti-Racists from many different organisations came together in Exeter's
Bedford Square in a peaceful celebration of the diversity in Exeter, to
show that the City has a proud history of welcoming people of all
beliefs and backgrounds to work, study live and visit.

How humiliating for the nazi EDL, who claim 70,000 followers (what they mean is 70,000 'likes' on Facebook. Quite different)

I would imagine that there will be a few more EDL at the next demonstration in Birmingham - but not if the EDL themselves have anything to do with it - as some EDL Facebook posts are quoting the date as the non-existent 30th February.

Friday, February 11, 2011

An emotional day, and an emotional moment, with a very vocal crowd of demonstrators, chanting, shouting, singing and protesting in a peaceful way, held back from the small black Embassy doors by a mere five cheerful British bobbies, when a call comes for silence, and at 16:03 GMT, the announcement is made official - 'Mubarak is gone'. No more martyrs required.

Disbelief, then tears and joy for some of those in the crowd who perhaps, are not used to protesting, and perhaps a few who wondered whether their voices would ever be heard. And then, more shouting and cheering, rejoicing. 11th of February is Egypt's new Independance Day.

After 30 years of pain and 18 days of civil protest the scenes on TV from Cairo were no doubt mirrored among Egyptian exiles in capitals around the world, and London was no exception.

Among the London demonstrators, and one of the driving forces behind the Facebook campaign for the London demonstration, was an Egyptian friend of mine, Khaled, so I went up to the Embassy today to lend him my small support, and report on the protest. I was privileged to be there when the news came through.

Khaled is a single individual, one man, but in small groups with other like-minded Egyptians they have fought in this cause despite being away from their homeland. Add all those small groups together and you get 20 million in Egypt and God knows how many others around the world all shouting with one voice.

But I have rarely seen such passion in a crowd as I saw today, but still peaceful in the spirit of Ghandi - and it was an honour to be there at the death.

In the end, no further deaths were needed past the few hundred who have lost their lives, but I know that there were plenty of souls in Cairo who would have paid the price if required. This is your time, Egypt, and we hope that you will create a new political system in your land that will be fair and just.

Proud Egyptions will celebrate tonight - and we will celebrate with them.

Marine Le Pen is the daughter of the French Fascist, Jean-Marie Le Pen, former president of the FN ('Front National' - i.e., National Front!) and currently its honorary chairman. The father has been condemned as being an apologist for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and for trivializing the Holocaust. The FN even has it's own 'Army'.

Well, the daughter is a rather nasty piece of work, too.

The leader of FN has praised David Cameron for
what she says is an endorsement of her party's far-right views on
multiculturalism and immigration and that it was "indisputable" Cameron was moving the
Conservatives closer to the traditional positions held by her party.

Muslim and anti-fascist groups questioned the Prime Minister's judgment
and sensitivity to the issues, saying he had handed a propaganda coup to
the hard-right EDL as 1500 of its supporters
marched through Luton chanting anti-Islamic slogans.

Strange bedfellows, Cameron and Le Pen. Not sure how proud DC is of his latest 'fan' but hopefully he's regretting his ill-timed and ill-chosen words.

I admit it. I'm not an iPhone fan (or iTouch, iPad, iTable, iWhateverNext) and I'm lukewarm over Blackberrys. Both are fashionable, stylish - and very over priced for what they do.

Which is why I stick with my HP iPaqs - an rx3715 (left) and an rx1950 (right). Yes I have two. I bought one second-hand after the older one failed on me after 6 years, but I then got the older one repaired, cheaply. (Good luck getting your iPhone repaired for less than what it cost.)

HP iPaq rx3715

HP iPaq rx1950

Both work exactly as they're supposed to, and do almost all that the iPhone, iTouch or any Blackberry does, for a tenth of the cost, with longer battery life, reliable internet connection, and mostly free applications.

(Thanks Ziggy for link on the the 'Crumble' image', from the rather weird b3ta site.)

The survey, carried out by a
lobbying and PR company, asked respondents to rate
Commissioners on a grading of A to E. None
scored lower than D except for 'Lady Ashton', a commission vice-president
as well as the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, who scored
an E for her performance.

Well, I wonder why that is? Perhaps because like many other peers and European executives, she has never - ever - been elected for anything. In her life. She has relied on her 'network' of Tony (Blair)'s Cronies for all of her positions.

At her appointment, Ashton's obscurity and unsuitability caused considerable comment in the media with The Guardian newspaper reporting that her appointment as High Representative had astonished friends and provoked criticism from others. The Economist
described her as being a virtual unknown with paltry political
experience, and having no foreign-policy background. She speaks no foreign languages.

Nepotism and cronyism almost always end up in the wrong people getting the lucrative top jobs, keeping the more talented out-of-the-loop, out of power, and out of the money.

This may not be of interest to non-football fans, or even to non-Brighton fans, but it does provide a good example of doggedness and determination overcoming all obstacles.

From initial planning permission, it's taken 13 years of battles, some
in court, to fight to get this constructed - and most of those years were times
when Brighton were, er, not so great.

But now Brighton, who currently lead League 1, and unlike Liverpool, are still in the FA Cup, will officially open their brand new stadium in July this year.

Brighton's stadium saga has been ongoing since their original home, the Goldstone Ground, was sold in 1995. They
stayed there as tenants for another two years before entering into a difficult ground share at Gillingham's Priestfield Stadium, and then moved on to
the absolutely awful Withdean Athletic Stadium back in Brighton, where they currently play.

Strangely enough, we have to thank a man who has been pilloried in the press and media for years as the person who finally approved the scheme in October 2005.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

A giant sized replica of his rather large cranium was built to promote a new flavour of crisps named after the TV star.

He is currently competing against Frank Skinner, Stephen Fry and Al Murray to sell the most packets of the snacks. For each sale of Fry Up, Frank Roast Dinner, Jimmy con Carrne and Steak and Al Pie, Walkers will donate 5p to Comic Relief.

(Such a shame Walkers are yet another company with its "offices" based abroad so they can pay less tax, but there you go. What can you do? Not buy their crisps, I suppose.)

The winner will be announced on Red Nose Day, March 18, with the losing three facing the indignity of ... being waxed on national TV.